2016-2019 Council Approved Multi-Year Budget & Highlights

On March 10 City Council approved an annual average tax levy increase of 2.82% property tax increase or $76 a year for the average homeowner (with an assessed value of $221,000) over the next four years.

The tax levy increase will address on-going municipal cost pressures and provide funding for initiatives and projects identified in City Council’s new Strategic Plan.

The benefits of multi-year budgeting include:

Alignment of longer-term goals and objectives with longer-term funding plans;

Greater certainty is provided to tax payers/residents about the future direction of taxes and the timing of implementation of the Strategic Plan; and,

Corporate Services

Londoners got involved:

• 50 residents came out to participate in the City of London’s annual ‘Build a Budget’ Workshops.

• 600 individuals visited the City of London’s interactive Budget simulator at www.buildabudget.ca with approximately 200 of those visitors submitting responses.

• Approximately 100 emails were sent to budget@london.ca.

• Residents visited members of Council as well as administration at 5 Open Houses (totalling 10 hours) to ask questions and provide their input.

• Twitter – there were 721 tweets using the hashtag #LdnBudget that generated 2,326,739 impressions.

• City Council added a 2nd Public Participation Meeting (PPM) which added another opportunity for individuals and community groups to provide thoughts and feedback.

When will Council discuss the budget again?

An important element of the multi-year budget is the annual update process. Annual updates will provide Council the opportunity to adjust the budget to provide flexibility for special events or circumstances that require funding and resource adjustments. Commencing in 2017 and in each subsequent year of the multi-year budget, Council will have the opportunity to make changes to the budget.